On Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:25:47 -0800 Peter Forrester wrote:
> Meantone, suiting a 'g' tuning for a renaissance lute.
> Peter
A few quick calculations reveal that it's not just a "meantone" but a rather
mixed 'salad bowl' of those, with quite a strong flavour of equal
temperament 'dressing'. The results are in the table below.
The + sign shows which temperament each individual fret position is closest
to. I assumed that the first course is tuned to the nominal G (which should
not be confused with the absolute pitch!) and that the following sequence of
chromatic and diatonic semitones is produced when it is fingered on 1st to
11th frets: g#, a, b-flat, b, c, c#, d, e-flat, e, f, f# (* sign signifies
if a-flat is chosen instead of g#).
As for the bass side of the fingerboard, one would need a full-size drawing
to determine fret distances along the line of the 6th course (I haven't
printed my yet). So the calculations are made following the same sequence of
intervals (i.e. as for the first course) and simply illustrate how far from
any fixed arrangement fret positions are, which is, in a way, hardly surprising.
PS: I started with my pocket calculator but quickly gave up and used Paul
Beier's String and Fret Calculator instead.
Alexander
---
TREBLE BASS
frets equal 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/8 equal 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/8
1 + * +
*
---------------------------------------------------------------
2 + +
---------------------------------------------------------------
3 +
+
---------------------------------------------------------------
4 + +
---------------------------------------------------------------
5 + +
---------------------------------------------------------------
6 +
+
---------------------------------------------------------------
7 + +
---------------------------------------------------------------
8 +
+
---------------------------------------------------------------
9 + +
---------------------------------------------------------------
10 + +
---------------------------------------------------------------
11 +
+
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